Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuits Continue To Be Filed Across The Nation

Austin, TX (Law Firm Newswire) August 15, 2013 – Thousands of transvaginal lawsuits are now underway in West Virginia and New Jersey. Thousands more are being filed in multiple other jurisdictions, including Texas.

“There seems to be a never-ending revolving door when it comes to women filing transvaginal mesh lawsuits. In terms of a class action case, the numbers of cases are astounding. The justice being sought for those who have been victims of the mesh implant nightmare is what keeps many injury lawyers up at night, prepping their cases,” said Bobby Lee, an Austin injury lawyer of Lee, Gober & Reyna.

Nationwide, there are thousands of cases in the pipeline to justice; claims filed against Boston Scientific Corp.; American Medical Systems, Inc.; Ethicon, Inc,; and C.R. Bard, Inc. Currently, in West Virginia, there are four multidistrict litigation’s (MDL) underway. “MDLs function as a process to speed up the handling of complex cases such as the mesh implantation cases,” explained Lee.

Cases of a similar nature, with common questions of fact, sharing common issues and pending in multiple districts are most often amalgamated and the courts, referred to as transferors, send them to another court, referred to as the transferee. At this stage, the transferee court deals with all pretrial proceedings and discovery. If a case cannot be settled or it is dismissed in the transferee court, it is sent back to the original court for trial.

The main contention in all of these cases is that the medical device makers were negligent in designing the mesh products and knowingly failed to warn patients about the risk of serious side effects, such as erosion and organ perforation. “One wonders where the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was in relation to the mesh implants,” said Lee.

In 2008, the FDA did say the mesh kits had the potential for serious side-effects, but that those occurrences were considered rare. In 2011, the FDA was stating the side-effects were not rare at all. Sometime later, the FDA ordered mesh kit makers to conduct post-market safety studies.

“That's scary,” indicated Lee. “That implies the medical device makers just created something they thought would sell, promoted it as safe and rushed it to market. If those safety studies had been done, thousands of women may not have gone through the agony that they did or be facing a pain-filled life with a product that is difficult to remove.”

The bald fact is that the mesh used was utilized to repair hernias, but it was never tested for vaginal repairs. What happened that allowed the transvaginal mesh kit to get to market without testing? The FDA can fast-track a product, provided it is similar to one that is already approved and currently on the market. The transvaginal mesh is similar to the hernia mesh.

“My door is open to those who are dealing with the pain-filled side-effects of a transvaginal mesh kit implantation gone wrong. Do not hesitate to call our office. We are able to work with you to ensure you get justice from the medical device maker who negligently sold a medical device that seriously harms those who have the surgery,” stated Lee.